Back in November last year, we thought we were in a ping meta. Today, we pray to go back to those days. With the influx of new pings, I decided to recreate the Ping Tier List back from November 2023 and update it with all the new pings.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you to join the new Staggerers discord server, where you can chat with like minded Underworlds players!
Pings will be ranked by their usability in any warband as well as how oppressive/annoying they when played against.
For the purposes of this article, just like last time, here is the definition of a ping:
Ping
/pɪŋ/
noun
A gambit card that does damage to an opponent, typically not during an activation, usually during a power step.
“Pings are overused.”
verb
The action of playing a power card that does damage to an enemy, typically during a power step or as a reaction.
“I will ping your entire board with Abasoth’s Avalanche.”
S TIER
The Right Bait – Even despite the nerfs, this is still a fantastic ping. Usable by any warband as well! In fact, one could argue that the nerfs made it a little better, since it’s now easier to score Deadly To All. This ping comes in the same deck as Boots of Warding and Tough Enough as well, allowing you to protect yourself from your own damage. Overall a great ping.
Malefic Siphon – Waiting for an inevitable nerf to this one. A heal and a ping at the same time is just amazing, and a ranged one at that. You can’t break line of sight to block it as well. Its only downside is the user must be wounded to play this card, which limits its power early game. But when has that ever stopped anyone from just charging through a lethal hex? It does heal you, so why would the damage matter?
Launch an Attack – Still asserting it’s position at the top of the ping leaderboard is this card. It’s 4 range, and the ‘downside’ of having to break an upgrade no longer feels like a downside with the new threat of the Bane of Heroes crossing onto your fighters. It can also protect you from False Gifts and Singular Reshaping. Overall, it’s just a fantastic ping, consistent and with a very small downside. The only reason it’s unpopular in Nemesis right now is probably because Beastbound Assault is one of the less-popular decks.
Dark Command – In Nemesis AND Championship this is one of the best pings in the game right now. It’s like The Right Bait but you don’t take damage as well. All you need to do is charge adjacent to an enemy for an extra damage! It’s unlimited range, can be used to punish beast warbands (or a bad charge from your opponent), or set up really easily by yourself. On top of that, no dice rolls involved.
Quickroots – This was released an insane ping and will always be an insane ping for the remainder of it’s time in rotation. The ability to randomly pinging an opponent for getting a Move or Charge token (conveniently the most common tokens in the game) is absolutely bonkers. Combine that with the fact that it’s not telegraphed, and you have one of the best pings in the game. The cherry on top is the fact that there are no dice rolls involved in the ping.
A TIER
Freeze-Thaw Finish – It may be nerfed but it is still a fantastic ping. The major downside with it right now is the fact that it’s harder to cast than a lot of spell pings and that it comes in the heavily-nerfed Forces of Frost deck. Still, it can do some serious damage and has little to no counterplay – you have to use up all available feature tokens and then avoid standing next to blocked hexes! Overall, a decent range ping which is hard to dodge.
Abasoth’s Screaming Idols – The only reason this isn’t in S Tier is because a) it’s a spell, and can therefore miscast, and b) it has a higher positional requirement than the S Tier pings. Other than these 2 factors, it’s a fantastic ping. If you’re playing Championship it helps set up Lethal Ward, it also can be used to displace tokens from enemies to deny their glory. On top of that, it makes standing near objective tokens and other feature tokens dangerous for your opponent for fear of being pinged.
Flame Wisps – So uh… apparently I forgot about this ping last tier list. It’s definitely an A Tier ping. It’s reliable with a wizard and kind of doable without one as well, and it’s pretty hard to avoid. The only way to dodge it is by staying 3 hexes away from each opponent (or at least the wizard) and hoping no one moves closer to you. The only thing keeping it out of S Tier is the dice dependency involved.
B TIER
Puncturing Ice Shards – Pre-nerf, this would have been an S-Tier ping for sure. Now it requires way too much setup for at most 1 damage to an enemy fighter. The fact that your opponent can now choose whether or not to do damage really hurt this card. It’s also super easy to play around – just don’t stand near hazards! The reason it’s in B Tier is just the threat of this card is enough to make people pick a board with no hazard hexes, severely limiting their board choices!
Frozen to the Spot – So a big problem with this ping is that it’s telegraphed and the damage will only happen if the move action happens during an activation. Last time, this ping was ranked A Tier. However, with Boots of Warding and Tough Enough being in the game right now, this ping has lost a lot of power. Sure, it’s still a big blow to anyone who it lands on. But the telegraphed nature of this ping makes it easy to counterplay by just dropping a quick ping-immunity gambit onto the affected fighter.
Unbearable Energies – This ping is definitely strong. It’s only limiting factor is it’s range. It’s difficult to become Voidcursed unless you heavily invest in the Voidcursed deck, compared to similar pings like Dark Command and The Right Bait. It also requires you to send your Voidcursed fighter forward, which typically will result in that fighter’s lifespan shortening dramatically. Even despite these drawbacks, this is still a really good ping. The only things keeping it in B Tier are it’s card draw dependency (to re-curse your fighters), the range, and the fact that you can’t salvage it.
*In championship format, I would rate this ping a C Tier as unlike Nemesis, it’s much more difficult to invest into more Voidcursing tech, lowering it’s usability.
Lethal Ward – A championship-only ping, this has and will always be a nice ping. It has no dice requirement and punishes opponents trying to play Hold Objective. It can also be used to turn an objective token into a lethal hex (by driving someone back into one and playing this card). It’s main drawback keeping it from A Tier is the lack of objective tokens on the board and the ease of avoiding those objective tokens.
Stir the Nest – The Nemesis version of Lethal Ward. It’s not a bad ping by any standards, it’s main issue is the positional requirement for it. It does have Range 4 though, which makes it quite easy to pull off. The worst part about this ping is Abasoth’s Screaming Idols exists which is technically a better version of this one, as it covers a bigger range and doesn’t rely on positioning of your opponents as much. Overall, this ping would be in A Tier if it wasn’t a spell (since it can be miscast) and if it can be forced easier.
C TIER
Unstable Footing – For warbands that can and will use it (ahem Cyreni’s Razors), this is a very good ping. However it doesn’t actually do damage most of the time, which kind of defeats the point of a ping. It’s also telegraphed AND a domain, so it blocks your other domains. Most of the time, it’s good for staggering. I’d say we should watch out for this ping more in the era of the Parasite though, as the Bane of Heroes fighter is permanently staggered, this ping will always do damage to them if they charged.
Bursting Power – Same issues as last Ping Tier List. It can do massive damage if you roll well, but it’s a 50/50 chance per fighter and it can damage your own fighters. Therefore, there is a high positioning requirement to use this card to it’s maximum effectiveness. Luckily it is really powerful in Round 1 against swarms (or in general if you position the tokens properly), which keeps it pretty powerful.
Grasping Rootgrave – Arguably the best ping at pinging things. This ping covers an amazingly wide area, it’s main drawback being the fact that it will often ping your own fighters. However, if it’s so good at pinging stuff (and relatively easy to dodge if you know it’s coming), why is it in C-Tier? I would put this ping in B-Tier if it wasn’t a Domain. Right now, Rimewyrm’s Bite is one of the most popular decks and unfortunately it has quite a bit of Domains. This means that it’s really not too punishing for a player to hold a Domain till the last power step to block this ping, severely limiting it’s usefulness.
Venomous Blood – If you’re investing in Poison upgrades, this ping is pretty good. Unfortunately it is pretty difficult to set up, you need to a) spend a glory on a Poison upgrade, b) have this ping in hand while a friendly fighter was successfully attacked. It’s not too bad, but the poison gambit restriction makes it a little hard to play. Luckily if you’re playing Toxic Terrors you will most likely have a lot of Poison upgrades, and your Poison upgrade fighters will be prioritised by your opponent. This makes it a nice punisher.
D TIER
Heaving Ground – Unlike Unstable Footing, this card has no side effect of staggering an opponent. It can only do damage or do nothing. Unfortunately, there are not much staggered fighters just running around right now (with the exception of the Bane of Heroes). The worst part with this card is that it allows the Bane of Heroes to charge you and drive you back for one extra damage. Be sure to know what you are doing when you play this ping, otherwise it might backfire! If a warband does have a lot of stagger potential, this ping might be worth considering. Still, it doesn’t make your opponent consider their actions as much as Unstable Footing, making it slightly worse.
Abasoth’s Avalanche – The once king of pings is now in D Tier. The threat that it posed on release is now invalidated by the fact that you need an Ice Counter generating card in your first hand along with this one. In the event you do manage to pull the combo off, your opponent will experience the horror that this card once was. Even so, they now have an entire activation to move away (since one of the best Ice Counter generating cards is Falling Shards, only usable in your territory) which really reduces the impact of this card. Overall, the reason this is in D Tier is because of the sheer amount of luck you need to set it up for a devastating Round 1 ping is too high, and in Rounds 2 and 3 it does not have that big of an effect on your opponent since you will probably all be in the same territory.
Insect Swarm – A Poison that might actually kill someone, this ping is really dice dependent to be really viable. You can mitigate the dice-dependentness of the it by running A LOT of Poisons and in the case you do this ping can even do 2 damage! However, it requires a lot of setup to have a chance at doing damage, making it a little too unreliable at pinging things. Keeping it from F-Tier is the fact that it can become really good with proper setup.
Bound Spirit – This card is a nice punisher but unfortunately the condition to play it is really easy to avoid, therefore there will rarely be a chance to play the card. For example, you can safely charge not adjacent to the feature token if you have a Range 2+ attack. Or, you can drive the target back after attacking them, which makes it so that you aren’t adjacent to a feature token with a friendly in it. Or, you just don’t move adjacent to enemies on feature tokens. The thing keeping this ping in D-Tier is if you do manage to play it, there’s a pretty high chance you can now one-shot your opponent as they are adjacent to a friendly fighter and have one wound counter.
Final Curse – The major issue with this card is the fact that it needs your wizard to die. This means that warbands with 1 wizard will typically skip it, as those warbands prefer their wizard alive if they want to invest into the FoF deck. The only warbands who can really run this card without much downside are those with 2+ wizards… so not much. If your warband does have that much wizards this card can be a nice deterrent though!
F TIER
Engulfing Swallow – So I don’t know about you, but I prefer my pings to do guaranteed damage. This ping requires you to roll not 1 but THREE DIFFERENT DICE and hope they all roll well. For starters, the scatter is pretty inaccurate. Sure, Just Pure Luck happens to be in the same deck to improve the odds, but still. Second, you need to roll a swirly at a 33% chance to even do the damage. Third, it can damage your own fighters. The one saving grace for this ping is that it has a pretty large area of effect therefore it’s not that low of a chance to hit someone if position the scatter properly. It’s also a pretty good stagger card in general.
Here It Comes! – In the event this card ever goes off in your favor, it will be devastating. However, it requires so many things to go right. First of all, you need to draw it in Round 1 or Round 2. Second, you need to not play any Domains for the duration that this card is persisting. Third, you need to win the roll-off for maximum efficiency. On top of that, it is preferable to have as many enemy fighters in the same territory for this card to do as much damage as possible. One thing this card is good for is for persisting in play for cards like Up For a Fight and for being discarded. Other than that, it requires too many things to go right to be an effective ping.
Pulse of Hunger – I’m going to be completely honest I forgot this card existed. Anyways, the main drawbacks with this card and pinging stuff is that a) it’s only a 1/6 chance to ping a fighter, and b) it can ping your own guys. It’s a decent stagger card (which doesn’t matter as being within 1 hex of the Bane staggers you anyway) but it does not do a good job of pinging.
Grievous Riposte – Same issue as Pulse of Hunger, needs a crit to go off. This one is arguably worse, as you need to first get attacked by a Range 1 attack. If this ping was by an adjacent attacker instead of Range 1 attack, this card might actually be played. However, you first need to find a warband with consistent 2 defense (to have higher chance of rolling the crit) and then get a meta with mainly Range 1 warbands in there to have a good chance of using this ping. Luckily if you do play this card, the damage will be pretty devastating!
Spiritsnare Cavern – So since last time I learned that all cards had ‘Charge Action’ replaced with ‘Charge Superaction’ so this ping now once again has a chance of dealing damage! Unfortunately, this will not happen very often as you first need to get at least 1 kill, preferably more to roll the crit more often, and then roll a crit. This ping can also damage you, which could lead to some issues as you don’t want to be pinged yourself. On top of that, it’s a Domain, so it’s blockable by RWB Domains as well. On the flipside, it blocks RWB Domains… but that alone is not enough to save the card.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed the article, and notice that the ping meta isn’t really as bad as it seems. Out of the 27 pings here, 13 of them are B Tier or higher, which means that there are maybe only 13 pings that are commonly seen in your games. Do with this knowledge what you will!
If you have any feedback for the article, you can contact me on the new Staggerers Discord (we have recently had an influx of new members so I’m excited to finally get talking there), and with that I hope to see you again soon!
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